1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a liquid crystal display device improved in viewing angle characteristics, and particularly in viewing angle characteristics of display contrast and gray scale inversion.
2. Description of Related Art
The most widely used liquid crystal display device (hereinafter referred to as LCD) at present is a normally white (hereinafter referred to as NW) mode twisted nematic LCD (hereinafter referred to as TN-LCD). In this NW mode TN-LCD, a nematic liquid crystal is held between a pair of glass substrates having transparent electrodes. The nematic liquid crystal has a helical axis in the normal direction of the pair of glass substrates, and also has an alignment structure characterized in that the twisted angle of the axis is about 90.degree.. This combination of the nematic liquid crystal and the pair of glass substrates forms a liquid crystal cell. The liquid crystal cell is held between a pair of linear polarizing films disposed so that the absorption axes thereof are orthogonal to each other.
When no voltage is applied to the NW mode TN-LCD, linearly polarized incident light is rotated by 90.degree. by the optical rotatory power of the liquid crystal cell and delivered, thereby generating a white condition. When voltage is applied, liquid crystal molecules rise with respect to the glass substrates, and the optical rotatory power is lost. The linearly polarized incident light is delivered while keeping its condition, thereby generating a black condition. The white condition, the black condition and an intermediate condition there between are used to perform gray scale display.
However, the nematic liquid crystal for the LCD has a bar-shaped molecular structure, and exhibits positive refractive index anisotropy having a high refractive index in the direction of the molecular axis. Because of the phase difference due to the refractive index anisotropy of the liquid crystal, the polarized condition of light obliquely passing through the LCD changes in a direction different from the normal direction of the LCD. As a result, when the display on the LCD is viewed from an angle different from the normal direction of the LCD, improper viewing angle characteristics are generated; that is, the contrast of the display is lowered, and the gray scale display is inverted.
Since this viewing angle characteristics are caused by the refractive index anisotropy of the liquid crystal molecules, investigation for its improvements have been conducted by using a phase retarder film exhibiting refractive index anisotropy opposite to that of the liquid crystal so as to compensate for a phase difference due to the refractive index anisotropy of liquid crystal molecules.
In the improvements in the viewing angle characteristics, a significant effect can be obtained by improving the viewing angle characteristics in the black display condition, namely in the voltage application condition. In the voltage application condition, the liquid crystal molecules are aligned in a direction nearly perpendicular to the glass substrates. By regarding this condition as a positive index anisotropic substance having an optical axis in the normal direction of the glass substrate, a method of using a phase retarder film having an optical axis in the normal direction of the film and having negative refractive index anisotropy as a phase retarder film for compensating for the positive index anisotropy has been disclosed in Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication Nos.2-015239, 3-103823 and the like. However, in an actual LCD, since the liquid crystal molecules remain tilted near the glass substrate even in the voltage application condition because of the restraint force of the alignment film of the substrate, it is difficult to sufficiently compensate for the light polarization condition caused by the liquid crystal cell by using the phase retarder film having an optical axis in the normal direction of the film and having negative refractive index anisotropy.
In order to also compensate for the tilted liquid crystal molecules, a method of using a phase retarder film having an optical axis in a direction tilted from the normal direction of the film and having negative refractive index anisotropy has been disclosed in Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication Nos. 63-239421, 6-214116 and the like. However, although these methods can improve the compensation condition for the liquid crystal cell being in the voltage application condition, compensation becomes insufficient in the intermediate gray scale display condition wherein the tilted liquid crystal portions increase and take more complicated alignment configurations because of lower application voltage. Therefore, it is difficult to improve the gray scale inversion phenomenon, although the viewing angle characteristic of display contrast can be improved. As a result, only incomplete viewing angle characteristics can be obtained.
Japanese Laid-open Patent Publications Nos. 5-080323 and 7-306406 and WO96/10773 describe that the viewing angle characteristics can also be improved by using a phase retarder plate having an optical axis tilted from the normal direction of the film although having the same positive refractive index anisotropy as the liquid crystal has. Although showing that the use of the phase retarder plate having positive refractive index anisotropy and having an optical axis tilted from the normal direction of the film is effective for curbing gray scale inversion of the liquid crystal cell, these publications make no concrete references to manners in which the phase retarder plate is used to achieve the curbing effect. With the modes described in these publications, TN-LCDs cannot be obtained having significantly improved viewing angle characteristics of both display contrast and gray scale inversion.
Thus, for the optical compensation plate used for improving viewing angle characteristics of the TN-LCD, no plate has been found that is capable of significantly improving viewing angle characteristics of not only display contrast but also gray scale inversion.
In view of these circumstances, the inventors assiduously made examinations to find that TN-LCDs having significantly improved viewing angle characteristics of both display contrast and gray scale inversion are obtained by combining a layer (optical compensation layer B) comprising at least one optical compensation layer having optically positive refractive index anisotropy and having a characteristic wherein the principal optic axis thereof is tilted 20 to 70.degree. from the normal direction of the film and a layer (optical compensation layer A) comprising at least one optical compensation layer having almost no refractive index anisotropy in-plane of the film and having a characteristic wherein the refractive index in the thickness direction of the film is lower than that in-plane of the film, or further a layer (optical compensation layer C) comprising at least one uniaxial optical compensation layer having optically positive refractive index anisotropy and by laminating these optical compensation layers having different characteristics in a specific order with respect to the polarizing films and the liquid crystal cell, namely in the order of, on both sides of the liquid crystal cell from the side of the liquid crystal cell, the optical compensation layer B and the optical compensation layer A, or the optical compensation layer C, the optical compensation layer B and the optical compensation layer A, so that the present invention has been completed.